photo help/ added second pic

[joseph clarke]

hello,

can anyone tell if this man would have been a private in 2bn rifle brigade?

thank you for any help,
eric

[forester]

Hello Eric,

Your photo has not attached I'm afraid.

Give it another go.

Phil

[joseph clarke]

hello Phil,

i had to resize the photo to get it posted.

thanks,
Eric

[neil1821]

Yes, Rifle Brigade looks good, but there's no way we can tell which battalion of the RB. And he's a lance-corporal rather than a private.

I take it you know this chap's identity?

[scrimnet]

And he has at least x1 good conduct chevron, possibly x2

Have you name and dates at all??

[joseph clarke]

hello,


thank you!!  these are photos of my grandfather john George bayly .   my grandfather was  supposed to have served 1904-1911 in India and Egypt. i think i have found him in the 1911 census, that is where we got the rifle brigade information from. does the second photo provide anymore clues?

thank you again,
Eric

[km1971]

Hi Eric

Regarding the 'cavalry' photograph. He still looks like an infantry man on a horse. The rifle is not a shorter carbine, but the infantry length Long Lee, and his puttees are wound like an infantry man - bottom to top, rather that top to bottom. But he is wearing a mounted man’s bandolier.

The replacement SMLE rifle was introduced in 1904, but it would have taken years to reach all regiments. Part-timers would have carried on using the Long Lee right up to WW2. That is the rifle used in Dad’s Army.

The weight of his tunic looks more Home than Overseas, and I think the hat was introduced in 1904.

Was he born c1886, so he was 25 in 1911 living in Alverstoke? If so he should have still been serving in WW1, but I cannot find a medal index card for him.

Ken

[scrimnet]

Hi Eric

Regarding the 'cavalry' photograph. He still looks like an infantry man on a horse. The rifle is not a shorter carbine, but the infantry length Long Lee, and his puttees are wound like an infantry man - bottom to top, rather that top to bottom. But he is wearing a mounted man’s bandolier.

The replacement SMLE rifle was introduced in 1904, but it would have taken years to reach all regiments. Part-timers would have carried on using the Long Lee right up to WW2. That is the rifle used in Dad’s Army.

The weight of his tunic looks more Home than Overseas, and I think the hat was introduced in 1904.

Was he born c1886, so he was 25 in 1911 living in Alverstoke? If so he should have still been serving in WW1, but I cannot find a medal index card for him.

Ken

I'm afraid Ken I will have to take issue with that!!!

The Long Lee was used by the Kitchener Armies during WW1 for training, but due to the amount of SMLEs around they were in use throughout the inter war years by secondary units. It was deemed "obsolete" by 1914

Now as for the Home Guard...even in TV progs, they used P17 and P14 rifles (!). They started off with SMLE, but after the evacuation from Dunkirk when most of the BEF kit was left on the beaches, they were withdrawn for use in the "regulars", and the "Lend Lease" P14 and 17 were  issued.

[scrimnet]

The second pic is pre WW1 as well I reckon, and the dates and int given fit in with what they show.

His bandolier is of an early model, and he is somewhat younger in the mounted pic!

It is in fact a pre 1903 "Mounted Infantry" pattern bandolier....